Crisp, cold mornings - how we love them! Revel in their bright, inviting, deeply motivating energy. Let's get out there! A brisk walk, healthy, invigorating, blowing away the cobwebs, exercising our weary limbs, nudging our jaded metabolism into action, bringing a rosy warmth to our cheeks and a sparkle to our eyes. A healthy lifestyle for the taking - who needs the gym? Actually, it's raining today, so maybe I do!
Some years ago (well, actually, quite a lot of years), living in a small rural community, I remember those bright, chilly days, walking to work in the crisp, early morning, delighting in the sunlight, the white, frosted rooftops, the wintry gardens, full of orange rosehips and red-berried holly trees, tall, bleached pampas grasses and dark green fir trees. I would arrive at work breathless and glowing, my cheeks matching my warm, red, woollen scarf and my matching red hat pulled down over my frozen ears. "You look like a little carol singer" my friend, Gill, would tell me as I peeled off the layers of clothing and tried to thaw out beside the radiator.
Now Christmas is over for another year! That glorious post-Christmas feeling! Freedom from all the rush, the pressure, the present buying, the food shopping, the parties, the baking and basting and the eating and drinking... Time to put your feet up and enjoy a well-earned rest! Christmas! It's been a strange one this year. There are global problems - and not only in the eurozone. After two thousand years plus of revelling, a growing multi-culturalism and an obsession with political correctness, things are turning on their heads a little.
This year our Muslim friends from Turkey sent us warm greetings and wished us a 'Merry Christmas'! Another friend wished us 'wonderful holidays' and a 'holy 2012'. Another wrote from Australia, calling for us to banish 'winter festivals' and put the 'Christ' back in Christmas trees - a reasonable request considering the origins of the festival they celebrate! The British prime minister, uneasy at the state of the nation, has been urging us all back to 'Christian values' and the Queen herself, in her Christmas broadcast, called us all gently to account and surprised us all by recommending us to consider escape from the excesses of that 'recklessness and greed' that trouble us all by opening our hearts to the Christian Saviour!
These are desperate times and may call for desperate remedies. Time to find a balance between the relentless demands of the material world and spirituality? Doubtless there is a touch of political point-scoring involved here and definitions of 'Christian values' come in a variety of shades of colour, but there are interesting developments afoot in our weary and ailing world.
It's nearly 2012 already! Time to cast our minds back over the past year and evaluate. Maybe a brisk walk in the wintry weather is the first step towards clearing the head whilst we consider the options... Happy New Year everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment